SSL is the trust of the visitors that they are landing on a secure website to get some knowledge. As a blog owner, you don’t want to pay for the SSL Certificate and you need a free SSL certification for the WordPress website.
You will learn to set up a free SSL certificate for a WordPress website with the top two free SSL certification providers. Now no need to pay for the SSL certificate.
What is an SSL Certificate?
Let’s know about SSL Before you get a free SSL certification for your WordPress website.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the technology to secure the data, to secure the communication and it is the encrypted connection between the site and the user.
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Why SSL Certificate is required?
Some bloggers do not want to spend money to get SSL certification or You started as a new WordPress blogging journey. You just need a free SSL certification for your WordPress website that should be good as a paid SSL certification.
If you have HTTP in your website URL then it can be decrypted easily and you will lose your data and your website will get some viruses. It’s not a threat for you but ensure your website security.
The ‘HTTPS’ is now treated as the ranking factor. Websites are coming toward SSL certifications and the Web browsers also emphasize getting an SSL for the site.
You visited some sites that have warned visitors –> ‘Not secure’ or ‘Your connection is not secure’.
Guide to getting Free SSL Certificate WordPress
Here will discuss and set up the two best free SSL certificates for WordPress. You can get an SSL certificate for free with Cloudflare and Really Simple SSL and if you are worried to get SSL for Godaddy or another hosting provider then these will be easy to set up with GoDaddy.
These are the most trusted SSL certificate for website owners and people are using them at no cost. So, why pay for an SSL certificate if you can get it free for a lifetime.
1. Really Simple SSL
Really Simple SSL is one of the top paid and free SSL certification providers. It has 5 million-plus active installations on WordPress. So, Let’s encrypt your website with Really Simple SSL.
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Go to your WordPress dashboard and on the plugins section click ad new. Now search for Really Simple SSL. Install and activate it.
Now click on the install SSL certificate option.
After clicking, it will check the System Status, then click Save and continue.
Tick the Terms & Conditions and OCSP Stapling. Then choose your hosting provider (as mine is Godaddy). Save and continue it.
In the Hosting section simply Save and continue.
Then it will check the Directories, Save and continue if no error occurs.
Now it will generate the SSL certification, if you see any error then go back to the previous section and again try this section again, then save and continue.
The final installation section is the most important section of Installing the Really Simple SSL certification. In this section, you need to copy the SSL certifications (CRT, KEY, CABUNDLE) to your hosting provider.
Let’s finish this step quickly. Go to your Hosting Provider and log in to the Cpanel. Find the SSL/TLS and click on it, It’s in the security section (for Godaddy).
Then click on manage SSL site at the right bottom.
Select your domain name and copy the Certificate, Private key & CABUNDLE one by one to paste on your hosting SSL certification. And then hit install certificate.
Now go to your WordPress dashboard, click on Save and continue.
Finally click on Go ahead, activate SSL!
Done, You secured with SSL certification.
2. Free SSL Certificate with Cloudflare
Cloudflare is the best ever benefit for an SSL certificate but it also speeds up your site performance. let’s start encrypting the WordPress websites with a Cloudflare SSL certificate.
Open Cloudflare.com to sign up or log in if you have already an account.
Assume that you are logged in, now click on add a site.
Then add your domain name (like example.com) and click add button.
In this section, Scroll down and select Free $0 then hit continue.
Cloudflare will automatically fetch the DNS records from your service provider. Now you need to log in to your service provider (like GoDaddy/ NameCheap). In my case, I will use GoDaddy.
Log in and go to your domain DNS settings. You will see the Nameservers section, hit change.
Then click on Enter my own nameservers (advanced).
Now simply copy Cloudflare nameservers and paste them on GoDaddy then hit save.
Here you are done with the GoDaddy (or you use another). Now go back to Cloudflare and click on the check nameservers.
You will the next page with a quick start guide from Cloudflare, allow them all, and hit finish. Scroll down and click on check nameservers.
Cloudflare will check the DNS and will tell you shortly. Try to refresh the page then you will see the Success message from Cloudflare.
On the left navigation bar click on SSL/TLS. As you are adding a new website for SSL in Cloudflare then remember to choose the flexible at first then you can change it to full after some weeks.
Now scroll down and open the SSL/TLS Recommender, it’s good for your website.
Congratulations! Now you have installed the free SSL certificate for the WordPress website. We have discussed two ways to get a Free SSL certificate and you can use any of them.
Let me know in the comments section about this process if you have any problems.
Thank You!